Shattered
by Girl Who Writes
Summary: The crystal cracked and shattered in those last moments.


**Title:** Shattered  
**Author:** Girl Who Writes  
**Feedback:** If you feel so moved.  
**Characters:** Michiru  
**SMMFFC Theme:** Outer Senshi - Optional  
**Word Count:** 983  
**Rating:** PG  
**Genre:** Young Adult, Drama  
**Summary:** The crystal cracked and shattered in those last moments.  
**Notes:** I'm not sure if I'm happy with this one. On one hand, it feels like a beginning, but on another hand, I think it's says as much as it ever could. I've been writing a lot about the rise of Crystal Tokyo lately; I may post more possible scenarios later on. :resumes Uni portfolios:  
**Disclaimer:** Naoko Takeuchi owns the characters and scenarios of Sailor Moon. I am a humble fan and thus make no profit from this venture.

* * *

The end comes with a bang, with blood and flesh paving the streets. There's screaming and crying, which is good, because silence has come to equal death. If there is screaming, at least people still live.

In the aftermath, she can't sleep in silence, playing music as she sleeps to keep the horrors at bay. In the beginning, the scratchy music keeps Hotaru and Setsuna awake, but now, if the music stops, they go to her, to make sure she hasn't found the silence like so many others.

The crystal cracked and shattered in those last moments. It cracked and shattered and blinded poor Mars, and there was no more healing to be done, no more great rescues from beyond the grave.

There's footage of the whole scene, filmed by someone with no sense or sensitivity. Of beaten, bloody girls standing around a blonde in pristine white dress, wielding a scepter topped with a great glass rock. There are already three girls missing from the line up, if anyone bothered counting.

And then, the explosion of glass and light and a shriek – Rei's eyes burning out, to become glass and dead. And silence. Serenity drops the scepter to the group, all white and silver and _crying_. She turned to them, so sadly.

"I am so sorry," she whispers, her hands clasped before her, tears rolling down her cheeks.

And it's then that her past self looks up – her hair burnt and tangled with blood and dirt and other peoples' flesh. There are burns to her face, her beautiful magic mirror is all but crumbling in her hands.

And the realization that this girl cannot bring any of the fallen back hits the group like a wave, but her past self does not buckle at the knees, does not begin to sob or crumple to the ground. She wraps her arms around her middle, like she's in unimaginable pain.

And then she flies at Serenity, the rage on her face so obvious, that the owner of the camera jumps backwards.

There's a tumbled of white skirts, and then her gloved hand is tightening around Serenity's delicate throat, and she's shaking with a rage no one thought her capable of.

"She's dead." Her voice is shaking. "You bring her back right now. You promised me – you promised us."

Serenity looks at her with pity in her eyes, and not fear, and that enrages her more. They were _deadly_, everyone knew that. And she swings her mirror down – she's going to make Serenity bleed, hurt, for this, when a golden blast knocks her away from the princess – now a Queen.

She picks herself up from the ground and stares at Serenity's savior, the newly-minted Endymion, who looks at her warningly, his sword raised.

"Neptune?" Pluto and Saturn at staring at her, and Saturn's hand has slipped into Pluto's; a little girl action that is unfamiliar when they are in senshi form. The footage ends here, but she knows it off by heart. They all do.

She leaves them, turns and limps away, her mirror clutched to her chest like a child clutches a beloved toy or security blanket when the dark is too much and the nightmares come creeping in. Her eyes are wide and bright and every part of her being is screaming at her that it is all over, there will be no rebirth, no healing. She cannot turn her mind away from it.

She finds herself back there, at the shrine, where it started – or ended, depending on how you look at it. Not really a kiss; a brush of the lips, an unspoken promise and …

The bodies are there, covered with sheets and blankets; not so much a mark of respect, she thinks, but to protect the dear princess from the guilt of those whom she could not save.

There are the Starlights who came from their faraway planet despite Sailor Moon's pretty protestations, with their congealing eyes, and bloody, gaping holes instead of stomachs, Yaten's ribs poking through the flesh.

There's poor Mercury, who is dirty and bloodstained, but doesn't really look dead, just unconscious, until you turn her over and realize that the back of her head is missing.

There's Jupiter, who is only identifiable by the burnt uniform, mostly a mess of scorched and torn flesh.

Artemis is nothing but a bundle of blood soaked fur, and she wonders if anyone has mentioned this to Luna or Venus. It was a white-faced Pluto who brought him back from the attack on the park, cradling him in the crook of her arm, absently stroking the feline corpse and she remembers wondering if Pluto had known Artemis back then.

She hugs her mirror to her tighter.

Uranus - Haruka. Her partner is dead, eyes wide and staring, a catalogue of injuries that falls somewhere between the Starlights and Mercury. She presses the heel of her hand against her mouth to guard against the anguish burning her mind, the tightening in her chest.

She changes back to her civilian identity, and as the fuku fades back into the dress she was wearing when this all started, she wonders idly if she'll ever use it again. Her head swims for a minute; without her senshi healing, she'll be unconscious soon. Oblivion seems like a sweet reality, when Tokyo is burning to the ground, and her world has become so… ugly.

The others will be back soon, and they will find her there, not really conscious any longer, lying facing Uranus's body, one hand stroking the bloodied, raw cheek of her lover, her cheeks dry but her eyes.

Saturn will cry, Pluto wrapping her arms around the girl, still a child, because they both know they have not just lost Uranus, the soldier, they have lost a papa, a best friend and a sister in arms. And with her, they have lost part of Michiru.

* * *


End file.
